Special Communique
from the
EZLN -
on the death of Archbishop Samuel Ruiz in Chiapas,
1/26/2011. click
for
more

Bulletin -
Follow-up
to
"Epilogue of a Disappearance" from the December
2010Monthly
News
Summary: While the
Zapatistas were
peacefully celebrating the 17th anniversary of
their 1994 Uprising, a
New Years surprise appeared on the web pages
of various Spanish
language newspapers in Mexico and around the
world.click for more

I. What We Are.[esp�What
We Are� begins with a summary of why the
EZLN rose up in arms eleven and one-half
years ago, saying
�Ya Basta!� Written in the �voice� of the
indigenous campesinos in Chiapas, they
say: �...we grew tired of
exploitation by the powerful, and then we
organized to defend ourselves and to fight
for justice.� They speak of the government
sending the Army, bombs, bullets and
planning to kill them all; of their escape
and resistance. They speak of the �people�
of Mexico who went
into the streets to stop the bombs and
bullets and telling them to dialogue and
put aside their weapons. These were the
people they have come
to call �civil societies.� So, they
dialogued and reached an agreement with
the bad government people called the San
Andrés
Accords. They speak of the Army attack in
February, 1995 and the Acteal Massacre;
the intercontinental �encuentros�
(gatherings); the march of the 1,111 to
Mexico City in 1997; the Consulta
(vote) in 1999 and the �march for
indigenous dignity� in 2001. They conclude
this part by speaking of the government's
failure to
comply with its word and its
outright betrayal and of the good people
they
have met during the last
eleven and one-half years.II. Where We Are Now.

�Where We Are Now� summarizes
what the Zapatistas have done since 2001.
In this part they talk about
constructing autonomy and improving their
own internal organization; basically, the
changes announced in 2003 with the birth
of the
Caracoles and Good Government Juntas. They
speak of the increased separation of the
political-military arm from the autonomous
and
democratic aspects of organization in the
Zapatista communities, of �governing by
obeying,� of the accomplishments of the
Juntas, and
conclude by saying that they have come as
far as they can alone. They now believe
that they must join with �workers, campesinos,
students, teachers, employees, the workers
of the city and countryside.�

PART TWO

III. How We See The World.

Attention all you
anti-capitalists out there! You will love
�How We See The World.� It is a scathing
indictment of global capitalism's
exploitation of everyone and everything
around the globe. Here is a clear and
concise easily
understood explanation of the evils of the
capitalist system. I recommend that you
read PART TWO even if you do not read the
others.
You can find it in either English or
Spanish (as you can all 3 parts) at: IV. How We See Our Country Which Is
Mexico

Here, the Zapatistas
apply their analysis of capitalism to
Mexico and explain how it has hurt their
homeland. They also observe, however, that
there are many in their country who do not
surrender to capitalist globalization;
rather, they resist and rebel.

PART THREE

V. What We Want To Do.

The Zapatistas say
they
want to
support all those who are fighting and
resisting in the world. After
acknowledging the many resistances to
neoliberal privatization in Latin
America, the EZLN makes a clear statement
of
what they want to do:

â��What we want to do in Mexico is
to make an
agreement with people and
organizations just of the Left, because we
believe that it is in the
political left where the idea of resisting
neoliberal globalization is,
and of making a country where there will
be
justice, democracy and
liberty for everyone. Not as it is right
now,
where there is justice
only for the rich, there is liberty only
for
their big businesses, and
there is democracy only for painting walls
with election propaganda.
And because we believe that it is only
from
the Left that a plan of
struggle can emerge, so that our homeland,
which is Mexico, does not
die.â��

They hope to develop a â��National
Program of Struggleâ�� among the
people
and organizations of the Left to save
Mexico
from the neoliberal
politicians.VI. How We Are Going To Do It.

In this final part of
the
Sixth
Declaration, the EZLN maintains its
commitment to an â��offensive
ceasefire,â�� not to establish any
secret
relations with
political-military organizations in Mexico
or
anywhere else in the
world, and to defend, support and obey the
communities of which it is
composed.

In the world...1. Forge new relationships with those
who
are resisting
and struggling against neoliberalism and
for
humanity.
2. Send material such as food and
handicrafts
to those brothers and
sisters from all over the world.
3. Hold another intercontinental encuentro
in maybe December or
January.

In Mexico...1. Fight for all the exploited and
dispossessed of
Mexico, including migrants to the United
States.
2. Build an anti-capitalist program.
3. Build another way of doing politics in
Mexico.
4. Make a new Constitution, new laws which
take into account the
demands of the Mexican people which are:
housing, land, food, work,
health, education, information, culture,
independence, democracy,
justice, liberty and peace. A new
Constitution
which defends the weak
in the face of the powerful.

THEREFORE, the EZLN will send a delegation
of
its leadership throughout
national territory to where they are
expressly
invited and they will
make alliances with non-electoral
organizations and movements
specifically defining themselves as being
of
the Left, not imposed or
negotiated from above but FROM BELOW AND
FOR
BELOW - to build an
alternative to neoliberalism, a Left
alternative for Mexico.

________________________________________________________________
Update: March 27, 2005.
International Women's Day in Chiapas: a
report from the Chiapas
Support Committee's March delegation.

From March 3 to 12, 2005 the Chiapas
Support
Committee's sixth annual
March delegation toured Chiapas
communities
and visited nonprofit
organizations working in the state's
indigenous communities. We visited
the Caracols located in Oventic and La
Garrucha, and the autonomous
municipalities (counties) of San Pedro
Polhó and San Manuel, our
sister municipality. We had briefings from
Enlace Civil, Ciepac and La
Red de Defensores Comunitarios de Derechos
Humanos. We thank the Juntas
de Buen Gobierno (Good Government Juntas)
in
both Oventic and La
Garrucha for welcoming us to their
respective
territories, as well as
San Manuel and San Pedro Polho. We
likewise
thank Enlace Civil, Ciepac
and La Red de Defensores for their
excellent
briefings. Finally, our
thanks to Dona Rosita for her hospitality
and
to OTEZ for safe and
friendly transportation. The information
in
this Update is compiled
from a synthesis of what we learned during
our
visits and briefings, as
well as from articles in the Chiapas
press.

I. San Pedro Polhó -
Polhó is an
autonomous municipal headquarters in the
Chiapas Highlands (in the
official municipality of Chenalhó)
which continues to house
between 5,000 and 6,000 internally
displaced
refugees who fled from
paramilitary violence in the Chiapas
highlands
during 1997. This
violence culminated in the massacre of 45
women, men and children in
the nearby village of Acteal on December
22,
1997. We met with several
members of the autonomous council who gave
delegates a good summary of
the history of that paramilitary violence
and
informed all of us that
the current paramilitary group surrounding
them is composed of
"Presbyterian members of the PRI" (the
political party which held power
for more than 70 years).
Due to this paramilitary activity the
refugees
are not able to return
to their lands to plant and harvest
crops. Consequently, a massive food
shortage
has existed for seven
years. The International Commission of the
Red
Cross assisted with both
food and medicine until December of 2003
when
it left for Iraq. Since
then, Polhó has depended on
national
and international civil
society, as well as the few lands which
can
safely be farmed, for its
survival. The exit of the Red Cross has
also
left Polhó without
enough medicine for a population
vulnerable to
disease because of
malnutrition.
Councilmembers denounced one of the
state's
local newspapers, Cuarto
Poder, for saying that all the displaced
had
returned to their
communities of origen. They felt that such
propaganda was an added
insult to their already precarious
existence.
We received a supplement to the history
told
by the autonomous council
members
in the far-away autonomous municipality of
San
Manuel, which is now
home to some who fled the Highlands as
refugees. One of them told us of
the paramilitary attack on Acteal. He
ended by
saying that if he had
not been a Zapatista, he would have been
killed during the attack. (We
have been told on more than one occasion
from
more than one source that
the paramilitaries massacred Las Abejas
because they were unable to get
at the Zapatista support bases living
there.)
Anyone wishing to help Polhó can
contact the Chiapas Support
Committee at:
cezmat@igc.org We continue to support the
Polhó refugees and
their woman's weaving cooperative.

II. International Women's Day in La
Garrucha - As we
were eating breakfast in an Ocosingo
restaurant, a car drove by
announcing a Zapatista Fiesta over a loud
speaker. A few hours later,
we arrived in the community of La
Garrucha,
where one of the five
Zapatista Caracols is located. During our
meeting with the Good
Government Junta, we quickly learned that
the
Junta was indeed
sponsoring a big party to celebrate
International Women's Day on March
8.
We also listened to members of the Junta
as
they first reported that
the entire region was calm and then
lamented
the fact that the
indigenous communities within their region
were divided. They
attributed this division to the
government's
low-intensity war against
the Zapatistas (which includes propaganda
campaigns and economic
assistance programs to buy off families
and
whole communities). This
was the first time that we had heard this
political message from the
Junta, which I interpretaed as one of
seeking
a reunification of the
indigenous communities within its region.
On March 7, trucks filled with campesinos
began to arrive from the four
municipalities in this Tzeltal Jungle
Region:
Francisco Gómez,
San Manuel, Ricardo Flores Magón
and
Francisco Villa. Covered
stages for the two bands were constructed
on
either side of the central
plaza. Soon there were plastic tents
sheltering families, basketball
games and bonfires for cooking. A cow was
butchered and being prepared.
The peace camp was full.
The two bands began to play on the
afternoon
of the 7th; corridos,
cumbias and merengue. The rain began to
fall
as both male and female
insurgentes mingled with civilian support
bases. Dancing began in the
evening. The rain began to fall harder and
continued through-out the
night, as did the music.
By morning on the 8th, there were
thousands of
Zapatistas camping in
the center of their Caracol. People were
selling food and other
merchandise. We met a woman and her
husband
who said they had been
homeless (landless) and had just been
given
land in a new community by
the autonomous council of Ricardo Flores
Magón. They were
selling her crafts to raise money to
construct
a house on their new
piece of land. After the beef soup was
served,
the dancing began once
again. Undaunted by the light rain, almost
everyone was dancing. Many
of the people we talked to emphasized the
importance of bringing people
together in these region-wide fiestas. I
connected it to the desire for
reunification expressed by the Junta.

III. Health Care Crisis - As we
were
celebrating
International Women's Day in La Garrucha,
a
woman was dying in one of
the region's communities because there was
no
ambulance to take her to
a hospital. Complications developed as she
began to give birth and
there was no nearby hospital, clinic or
ambulance to care for her. We
learned about this tragedy when we visited
San
Manuel, our sister
municipality, the day after International
Women's Day. We had first
heard a woman express the need for an
ambulance in a November training
workshop in San Manuel. Now, members of
the
autonomous council were
making an official request for one.
The need for emergency medical services is
coupled with the lack of
medicine in this region. When the
International Red Cross left Chiapas,
it also closed the clinic in San Miguel,
not
far from La Garrucha and
San Manuel. The clinic had an ambulance
with
emergency medical
equipment and emergency technicians. It
also
had medicine. The entire
region is now without basic medicines.
Some
cases of typhoid and
malaria have been detected and a general
health care crisis exists.

IV. Paramilitaries - The issue of
paramilitary
activities arose several times during the
weeks prior to the
delegation: 1) The Fray Bartolomé
de
Las Casas Human Rights
Center (FBCCDH) announced that it was
filing a
petition with the
Interamerican Human Rights Commission
against
the Mexican government
for human rights violations in the case of
the
Acteal massacre; and 2)
Chiapas state police used violence to
break up
a sit-in blocking the
city hall, allegedly involving one faction
of
the paramilitary group
known as "Paz y Justicia" against another
faction. Each was cloaked in
the colors of a political party.
Several NGOs we met with addressed the
topic
of paramilitaries. We were
told there were three paramilitary groups
with
strength: 1) Paz y
Justicia; 2) Mascara Roja; and 3) OPDIC.
Several others exist without
much strength, such as Los Chinchulines
and
Los Autenticos Coletos. The
latter has arms but no military training.
The
state government of
Chiapas had previously denied the
existence of
paramilitary groups in
the state. However, Governor Pablo Salazar
acknowledged the presence of
Paz y Justicia as a paramilitary group
after
the problems in Tila.

A. The Acteal Massacre Case - On
February 9, La
Jornada reported that the Fray
Bartolomé de
las Casas Human Rights
Center (Frayba) announced that it was
filing a
petition (complaint)
with the Interamerican Human Rights
Commission
(IHRC) against the
federal government of Mexico, alleging
that
the government bears
responsibility for creating, training and
supporting the paramilitary
group, Paz y Justicia, which allegedly
committed the massacres in the
Northern Zone of Chiapas between 1995 and
1997. Part of their
allegations are based on the confession of
an
alleged former military
commander of Paz y Justicia. The petition
was
actually filed on
February 18, 2005 and reported in the
press on
February 22, shortly
before we arrived in San Cristobal de las
Casas. Frayba filed the
petition jointly with Las Abejas, the
Catholic
campesino organization
whose members were massacred. Frayba is a
human rights organization
sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of San
Cristóbal de las Casas,
Chiapas. Retired Bishop Samuel Ruiz is on
the
Board of Directors.

B. The case of Tila - In the early
morning hours of
February 15, 2005, state police vehicles
entered the town of Tila for
the purpose of dislodging protesters from
their sit-in at city hall.
Apparently, some or all of them were
anti-riot
police. Dissidents had
been blocking entry to the building since
December of last year (2004).
According to news reports, the police
arrested
more than fifty people
during the eviction and their whereabouts
were
unknown for several
days. Eye witnesses report that the police
kicked in doors to enter
private homes and take out men they wanted
to
arrest. While inside,
they beat the men and also beat women and
children. Residents describe
that helicopters flew overhead dropping
tear
gas. For several days
after the operation, Tila's schools and
businesses were closed,
residents stayed indoors and more than 100
families fled in fear of
police agents who were patrolling the
town.
By the time we arrived in Chiapas thirty
of
those detained had been
released, including the only Zapatista
supporter detained.
The dissidents who blocked entry to city
hall
were opponents of the new
Tila mayor, elected in October, 2004. The
two
opposing forces were the
Institutional Revolutionary Party, known
as
the PRI for its initials in
Spanish and the Alianza, an alliance of
two
opposition parties, the
Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the
Worker's Party (PT).
Apparently the election was very close and
the
State Election Tribunal
declared that the Alianza won. However, an
appeal by the PRI to the
Federal Election Commission was successful
and
that body declared the
PRI to be the winner. The sit-in by
members of
the Alianza began
several days before the new PRI mayor,
Juan
José Díaz Solórzano,
was to take office on
January 1, 2005.
The state government of Chiapas had been
negotiating with both sides
from the beginning of the problem. The
Alianza
demanded power sharing;
i.e., 50% representation on the Municipal
Council. Some agreements were
reached, but each side claims the other
broke
them.
Tila is one of the Chiapas municipalities,
or
counties, where
paramilitary violence was rampant from
1995
until 2000. During those
years, the paramilitary group Paz y
Justicia
terrorized the region and
caused at least 100 deaths, numerous
disappearances and up to 20,000
displaced indigenous people. Paz y
Justicia
was allegedly trained by
the military and funded by those in power
at
the time - the PRI
governments of Ernesto Zedillo at the
federal
level and Julio Cesar
Ruiz Ferro and Roberto Albores Guillen in
Chiapas - as part of the
counterinsurgency campaign against the
Zapatista National Liberation
Army (EZLN) and others on the left,
including
the PRD. Paz y Justicia
was never dismantled or disarmed when the
governments changed in
December of 2000. Rather, it began to
self-destruct, eventually
splitting into two factions, one faction
calling itself the Union of
Indigenous, Farming and Forest Communities
(UCIAF, for its initials in
Spanish). The other remained Paz y
Justicia.
The governor of Chiapas, Pablo Salazar
Mendiguchía, was cited in
La Jornada as alleging that the two
factions
of Paz y Justicia were
behind the current political conflict in
Tila.
He claimed that one
faction (the UCIAF) sought power using the
PRI
as a vehicle while the
faction still calling itself Paz y
Justicia
was using the Alianza to
seek power. There was an inference that
all
those arrested were members
of Paz y Justicia, a claim denied by both
the
Bishop of San
Cristóbal and the wives of those
detained. It appears those
detained were mostly members of the PRD,
although Samuel Sánchez
Sánchez, a founder of Paz y
Justicia
and now a leader in the
UCIAF, has also been detained.
What is of particular significance is that
for
more than three years
Salazar's Chiapas government of change has
denied that paramilitaries
exist within the state. Perhaps the recent
confessions of a former Paz
y Justicia comandante, made public by the
Fray
Bartolomé de las
Casas Human Rights Center have forced the
state government to confront
reality. These confessions form part of
the
basis for the Human Rights
Center's recent complaint against former
officials of the Mexican
government filed with the Interamerican
Human
Rights Commission, a
commission of the Organization of American
States (OAS).

Details on the Acteal case are available
on
the Fray Bartolomé de las
Casas Human Rights Center's webpage at:
http://www.laneta.apc.org/cdhbcasas/
The same site contains information about
the
violence in Tila.

On
January 1, 2004, the
Zapatista Army of National
Liberation (EZLN
or Zapatistas) and their

supporters around the worldcommemorated
the
tenth
anniversary
of
the
Zapatista
Uprising
in
Chiapas,
Mexico.
Rebel
Magazine,
a
monthly
magazine
of
Zapatista
thought
published
in
Mexico,
promoted
a
global
campaign
of
festivities
in
honor
of that
anniversary, as well as the
twentieth anniversary of the
founding of the
rebel organization on
November 17, 1983. As this double
anniversary occasions many
important
articles of analysis remembering
EZLN
history and the significance of
the Uprising, it is useful to look
at what
the Zapatista communities
are actually constructing inside
their
autonomous regions: an
alternative to neoliberalism. They
are
constructing another world.

Although
the
construction
of
this
other
world
began
soon after the 1994
Uprising, it became more
apparent with the major policy
statements made
in July and August of
2003. This other world is based
upon civilian,
regional, indigenous
self-government (autonomy) and
collective work
for the community.

In July
of 2003, Subcomandante
Marcos, the eloquent spokesperson
for the
Zapatistas, informed the
world of major internal
organizational
changes, the goal of which is to
strengthen and advance autonomy
(self-government) and to implement
the
San Andres Accords. Those Accords
were the
result of an initial peace
agreement between the EZLN and the
Mexican
government on how to
harmonize self-governing
indigenous regions within the
Mexican state.
Unfortunately, the Mexican
Congress did not implement the
full agreement
into law, so the
Zapatistas are de facto
implementing the San
Andres Accords within
their territory--autonomy without
permission.

The
EZLN announced the creation
of five centers of autonomous,
regional civil
government. This involved
a change in the name of those
centers from
Aguascalientes to Caracols
(conch shells). It also involved
the creation
of autonomous, regional
governance structures called
Juntas de Buen
Gobierno (Good Government
Committees). The Zapatistas refer
to them
simply as Juntas.

The
Juntas are composed of
representatives from each
autonomous county
within the region.
Autonomous counties were initiated
soon after
the Uprising. They are
composed of Zapatista supporters
who live in
resistance to the local,
state and federal governments. The
autonomous
counties democratically
elect their own autonomous county
councils to
carry out the usual
functions of local government:
recording
births, marriages and deaths;
obtaining development projects;
constructing
schools and clinics, etc.
They also have a judicial
function: dispute
resolution.

The
autonomous county councils
resolve disputes which arise
within Zapatista
counties between members
of the organization. They also
attempt to
resolve disputes between
Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas
within their
territory. This latter
function has caused friction
between
Zapatistas and anti-Zapatistas. It
is important to note here
that many non-Zapatistas have
accepted the
role of the autonomous
councils. The anti-Zapatistas are
those with
an axe to grind, such as
paramilitaries,
quasi-paramilitaries and those
at the service of local
politicians and cattle ranchers.

Other
problems between the
autonomous counties themselves
have been the
unequal distribution of
economic support from civil
society and the
imposition of projects by
some international aid
organizations. The
Juntas were created, in part,
to address these problems and
inequities.

On a
recent fact-finding trip,
this writer met with the Good
Government Junta
based in the community
of La Garrucha. Its chairperson
stated that
its functions were
equitable distribution of economic
solidarity,
resolving complaints of
human rights abuse, and resolving
disputes
between people in different
autonomous counties.

The
chairperson explained that
cases were initiated by someone
who believes
he/she has been wronged or
cases are referred by the local
courts in the
official government
county. In other words, the Juntas
provide an
alternative court system
to that of the constitutional
state government
and, amazingly,
according to the Junta and several
experts,
the local branches of the
state government are cooperating!

Cases
heard by the Juntas are
free to all parties and hearings
are conducted
in the local indigenous
language. This contrasts sharply
with the
state courts which cost lots
of money (graft) and are conducted
in Spanish
and legalese. Many
indigenous people in Chiapas do
not speak
Spanish at all and certainly
not well enough to understand a
court
proceeding. Nor does the average
indigenous campesino understand
the legal
system. Therefore, in order
to pursue a case in a local court,
indigenous
people must pay the fees
and hire a lawyer and also an
interpreter.
There are few indigenous
peasants who can afford these
costs.
Consequently, most indigenous
people do not have access to the
state courts
for resolving problems,
and unresolved problems can
escalate into
violence. The reduction of
violence may motivate the
present-day
cooperation of the local courts
while a justice system conducted
in their own
language, free of charge
and free of racism is a strong
motivation for
the average peasant with
a grievance to use the Juntas.

An
alternative system of
justice necessarily raises the
question of
what rules or laws form the
basis for decision making. An
autonomous
council president explained it
perfectly: "We resolve problems
according to
indigenous justice, not
according to money like they do in
Ocosingo"
(where the government
courts are located). The new
Juntas rely on
traditional indigenous
concepts of justice to resolve
disputes just
as the autonomous councils
have been doing for at least five
years.

It
became apparent during my
interviews that there is another
dimension to
the Good Government
Juntas: territorial control. The
Juntas want
to know what is going on
within what they consider
Zapatista territory.
This derives directly
from the San Andres Accords which
granted a
degree of territorial
control to indigenous peoples
throughout
Mexico. The Juntas expect all
those doing business inside their
territory to
obtain permission from
the Junta for their activities.
One means of
doing this is through the
appellate function of the Juntas.
A conflict
which remains unresolved
at the autonomous
council level can be taken up by
the Juntas,
thereby enforcing
requirements and/or decisions of
the
autonomous councils within the
region.

In
several instances where
anti-Zapatista groups have
threatened the
Juntas with violence, the
state government has intervened so
as to
prevent violence. The
assertion of territorial control
over
businesspeople, transport
companies, construction companies
and
anti-Zapatistas will continue to
present challenges to the Juntas
as long as
the Mexican Congress fails
to convert the San Andres Accords
into law.

Despite
these challenges, the
Juntas represent a significant
step in
converting the regional
administration of justice and
territory from
the EZLN military
structure to an EZLN civilian
structure. It is
sometimes difficult for
observers of the Zapatista
movement to
separate the civilian side of
the EZLN from the military side.
According to
Marcos, this will become
easier because the lines will no
longer cross.
The military's function
will be the protection of the
civilian
population and will no longer be
involved in civilian functions.

Overseeing
the
distribution
of
economic
solidarity
and
approving
projects
by
national and
international organizations
present
challenges. The Zapatista
communities are developing an
indigenous
economy, often referred to as
a solidarity economy or campesino
economy by
those advocates of
constructing another world. It is
referred to
here as an indigenous
economy because it is rooted in an
indigenous
tradition of peasant
farmers, an indigenous emphasis on
the primary
importance of community,
and on a traditional practice of
working
collectively for the
community.

The
1994 Uprising claimed
thousands of acres of former
cattle ranches as
Zapatista territory. The
need for land was a major reason
for the
rebellion, just as defending
themselves against armed
aggression by cattle
ranchers was a motive for
arming themselves. The land taken
by the
Zapatistas ("recovered land")
has been settled by Zapatistas
from other
communities in need of land.
New communities were founded with
just a piece
of land (no water
supply, no electricity, no houses,
no schools,
clinics or stores). The
rather awesome task of the
autonomous councils
was and still is to
develop these services. This has
been
accomplished by means of projects
by nongovernmental organizations:
water
projects, ongoing training of
health promoters and education
promoters
(teachers) and economic
support from civil society (the
construction
of schools, clinics and
collective stores). Other projects
have
included coffee cooperatives,
weaving cooperatives, blacksmith
shops,
shoemaking shops, organic
vegetable gardens, bread-baking
cooperatives,
cafes and even the
reproduction of their music on CDs
and
cassettes. Nevertheless, the
communities must be able to create
a commerce
of their own, independent
of outside economic support. They
must be able
to generate funds to
maintain the autonomous councils
and to buy
supplies for their schools
and medicine for their clinics.

One
proposal for generating
profits is the construction of at
least ten
warehouses throughout
Zapatista territory. These
warehouses would
buy necessities wholesale
rather than through a middleman
and then sell
to the community stores
at a small profit. This would
generate the
funds necessary for the
daily maintenance of autonomous
institutions.
Eventually, the
warehouses could purchase products
from their
region for trade with
other regions and would be in a
position to
seek markets for their
products. The labor of the
warehouse workers
is labor donated to the
autonomous county, that is,
collective work.
The warehouse project is
already under way in several
regions.

Another
world is not generated
overnight. One autonomous council
president
told us that the name of
the cooperative coffee shop in his
community
is Smaliyel. That means
"slow going" in the Tzeltal Maya
language.
They chose that name because
progress is made slowly. What is
important is
that several hundred
thousand Zapatistas have begun the
process of
constructing their own
world with cultural values opposed
to those of
neoliberalism.

(This
article appeared in the
Spring, 2004 edition of Left Turn
magazine. It
gives a good summary of
what is taking place inside the
civilian
Zapatista communities as they
construct autonomy. It is also
available in
Spanish. )

What
do
a
pink shoe with a
stiletto heel and five conch
shells have to
do with the Zapatista Army
of National Liberation's
(EZLN's) latest
initiative to recapture
political space in Mexico for
the indigenous
movement? Stay tuned for
the answer from that master of
prose,
rebellion, and public relations
himself, Subcomandante Marcos
(aka "the
Sup").

The comunicados began flooding
our email
bins in mid-July. First, an
announcement by the commanders
that Marcos
would be temporarily
speaking for the 30 autonomous
municipalities. Next, a few
brief
statements on the international,
national,
and local political scene
and two bold announcements: 1)
that the Plan
Puebla Panama (PPP) would
not be permitted in Zapatista
territory; and
2) that the Zapatistas
would implement the San Andres
Accords
without the government's
permission.

Then came the announcement of a
death.
Marcos didn't say who or what
was about to die and left us
worrying
whether the Sup was gravely ill.
He kept us hanging until the
next day when
we learned that the five
Aguascalientes had received the
death
sentence. We waited yet another
day to find out that those same
five
communities (Oventic, Morelia,
La
Garrucha, La Realidad and
Roberto Barrios)
would die in order to be
reborn as Caracoles (conch
shells). Conch
shells? Spirals that lead to
the heart.

Rather than the political
support, dignity,
and respect the communities
deserve, Marcos said, they have
received
many cast-off items from
modern industrial societies: one
pink shoe
with a stiletto heel, old
computers that don't work,
expired
medicines, and inappropriate
(useless) clothing. He
characterized this
charity, which was delivered
to the five Aguascalientes,
where it remains
unusable, as the
"Cinderella Syndrome." Marcos
also reported
that the Aguascalientes
experienced the imposition of
unnecessary
projects by some nonprofit
organizations.

The death of the Aguascalientes
signifies
the end of their acceptance
of such charity and imposed
projects. The
Caracoles will no longer
accept cast-off items or imposed
projects.
Rather, they expect dignity,
respect, and political support.

Since 1996, the five
Aguascalientes
functioned as spaces where civil
society could meet and dialogue
with the
Zapatistas. They also served
as training and cultural centers
for
communities in the region. The
Caracoles will continue to
perform those
functions as well as some
additional ones.

Building the Material Conditions
for
Resistance

In a communique entitled "A
History," Marcos
evaluated the progress
made by the autonomous
municipalities over the
last seven years, a very
practical and down-to-earth
assessment of the
current situation in the
communities. He praised them for
the important
advances they made in
such high-priority areas as
health care and
education, with the support
of civil society (that's us).
Marcos reminded
us that resistance means
great material sacrifice for the
communities
because they will accept
nothing from the "bad
government" (mal
gobierno).

Progress has taken place "under
conditions of
extreme poverty,
shortages, and technical and
information
limitations . . . ," he
continued. "Its having managed
to survive
under conditions of
persecution, harassment, and
poverty that have
rarely existed in the
history of the world speaks to
the fact that
[autonomous government]
has benefited the communities."
Marcos
recognized that, with support
from civil society, the
autonomous councils
have carried on the labor
of building the material
conditions for
resistance. However, he said,
the development of these
autonomous
municipalities has not been
equal.

The inequality had been caused
by several
factors: 1) the autonomous
municipalities (counties) in
which the
Aguascalientes were located have
tended to receive more attention
and more
economic support from civil
society than other
municipalities; and 2)
those
autonomousmunicipalities which
are easy to
reach have also received
more economic support and thus
are more
developed. The resulting
inequality in development is
unfair and causes
friction between
communities and between
autonomous
municipalities.

The success of the autonomous
councils in
dealing with conflicts
between Zapatista communities
and nonZapatista
communities got mixed
reviews. Thus, the new plan to
remedy the
inequalities: Good Government
Committees (Juntas de Buen
Gobierno or,
simply, Juntas).

These are juntas of good
government in
contrast to the "bad government"
of Mexico (as the Zapatistas
usually refer to
it). The Juntas will take
on the duties of distributing
economic
solidarity and projects in an
equitable manner throughout
their region. They
will also resolve
disputes which cannot be
resolved locally.
They will regulate who
enters and leaves their region.
Marcos put it
this way:

"The Caracoles will be like
doors for going
into the communities and
for the communities to leave.
Like windows for
seeing us and for us to
look out. Like speakers for
taking our word
afar and for listening to
what is far away. But, most
especially, for
reminding us that we should
stay awake and be alert to the
rightness of
the worlds which people the
world."

The Juntas will be composed of
one or more
representatives from each
autonomous municipality within
the
jurisdiction of each Caracol, in
other words, regional
self-government. A bold
move, which takes
autonomy to another level and
places it on the
national agenda once
again. Suddenly, Mexican
newspapers were full
of articles pro and con
the new Zapatista initiative on
autonomy and
the legality of its Juntas
(or lack thereof). Mexico City's
progressive
daily, La Jornada, called
it "autonomy without
permission."

The Political Context

Many of the problems this
initiative addresses
have been around for a
while. Those of us who travel to
Chiapas
frequently (and have learned
to listen and see) have observed
the unequal
development, imposed
projects, and useless cast-off
items for some
time. So the logical
question is, Why has the EZLN
waited until now
to launch their new
initiative?

We have only to look at the
election debacle
of July 6 of this year for
the answer. Mexican voters
expressed
themselves by abstaining from
voting. Nearly 60 percent failed
to vote. In
Chiapas, the rate of
abstention was close to 70
percent, a negative
referendum on the failed
promises of the Fox presidency.
The PAN (Fox's
political party) lost
seats in the Chamber of Deputies
whereas both
the PRI and the PRD
gained.

There is much talk about the
inability of Fox
to govern for the
remaining three years of his
term. A political
power vacuum results.
Enter Marcos, the EZLN, and the
autonomous
communities to fill that
vacuum, reopening space for the
issue of
indigenous autonomy. The
Zapatistas are reuniting the
nation's
majority, which supported them
on
the March of Indigenous Dignity
during
February-March of 2001. They
invited civil society to three
days of fiestas
in Oventic this past
August 8, 9, and 10 to
commemorate the death
of the Aguascalientes and
the birth of the Caracoles.
Indigenous peoples
from all over Mexico, as
well as some campesino
organizations, the
press, and civil society,
attended. An estimated 15,000 or
more greeted
this new phase of EZLN
resistance to globalization and
bad
government.

Warning Issued to Paramilitary
Leaders: 2 for
1

Marcos reported that the
activity of
paramilitary gangs has increased
in Chiapas, especially in Los
Altos (The
Highlands). Once again, these
gangs are threatening attacks
against Acteal
and Polho similar to the
Acteal massacre of December
1997. Marcos put
the paramilitary leaders
on notice that there will be no
impunity for
them if they attack. He
stated that for every Zapatista
killed, the
EZLN will kill two
paramilitaries, his point being
that this time
the paramilitaries will
suffer the consequences of their
actions.

In his letter to the festival in
Oventic,
Marcos spelled out very
clearly that the autonomous
municipalities and
Good Government Juntas
will have autonomy from the
EZLN's military
structure. Members of the
military will no longer perform
police
functions, like maintaining
checkpoints and collecting taxes
from
individuals. Therefore, all
checkpoints and tax collections
will be
terminated immediately. This
announcement was well received
by the
mainstream media and the
government, a good public
relations move by
the EZLN, interpreted by
some as a signal for peace and
dialogue.
Marcos said clearly that the
military's role would be to
defend the
communities.

Plan La Realidad to Tijuana
(Plan RealiTi)

Interspersed among the practical
matters of
moving toward regional
autonomy, Marcos repeated his
scathing
critique of the Plan
PueblaPanama (PPP), that
ill-fated plan by the
Fox administration to
"develop" the infrastructure of
indigenous
Mexico, not for indigenous
people but to accommodate
transnational
corporations and the FTAA. The
Sup boldly
announced that the PPP would not
be permitted
in Zapatista lands. He
also predicted that all the
resistance
movements throughout Mexico and
Central America had already
doomed any attempt
to implement the PPP.
The comunicado on this issue is
worth reading
for his critique of "big
capital."

A big surprise came when Marcos
announced the
Plan La RealidadTijuana
(Plan RealiTi). This plan
involves linking all
the resistance movements
in Mexico and together
rebuilding the country
from below. And . . . the
Zapatistas have four more plans
to deal with
the rest of the world,
including the U.S. and Canada!

In connection with
globalization, an
announcement was made during the
Oventic fiesta that the
Zapatista word would
travel to Cancun in
mid-September for the WTO
gatherings.

Conclusion

We congratulate the Zapatistas
on this advance
in their construction of
indigenous autonomy. A Chiapas
Support
Committee delegation will
deliver our congratulations in
person to the
Caracol of La Garrucha
when we travel into the river
valleys of the
Lacandon. We will be
asking the questions everyone
has about what
the reorganization means
to those of us in civil society.
Join us on
our October 5 to October 12
delegation
to Chiapas, and help construct
the material
conditions for resistance.
Call (510) 6549587 or email:
cezmat@igc.org

There is a war in Chiapas.
It is called a
"low-intensity" war. It is a
war directed at the civilian
population.
From time-to-time
orchestrated
violence breaks out. All is
watched and
controlled by the Mexican
Army's estimated 70,000+plus
troops
stationed throughout the
EZLN zone
of influence. We saw troops
everywhere we
went: on the main highway
between San Cristobal and
Ocosingo, on the
dirt road into the Las Tasas
Canyon, on the road into the
Patihuitz
Canyon and on the mountain
road
that passes the entrance to
Polho.

They were "on patrol." The
entire
countryside is dotted with
military
camps and bases of various
sizes, beginning
with the gigantic
olive-green 39th Military
headquarters
across the road from the
Tonina
Ruins and the community of
Jerusalen. They
watch, harass and frighten
civilian Zapatista
supporters. They protect
and coordinate with the
paramilitary groups.

Paramilitary Situation.

The paramilitary groups do
the dirty work
for the government and the
Mexican Army. When violence
is planned, it
is the paramilitaries who do
it. They have complete
impunity. In the
Northern Zone, the
autonomous
counties do not publicly
announce themselves
for fear of attack by
Development, Peace and
Justice, ironically
the name of a large
paramilitary group. In the
canyons east of
Ocosingo, some counties do
not publicly announce the
name of the county
seat for fear of
paramilitary reprisal.
County headquarters
are rotated. Communities
protect themselves by close
coordination and
cooperation/ support in
the event of an attack and
with denuncias
(public announcements) of
paramilitary activity. They
stressed the
importance of international
observers in their peace
camps and of
international civil society
distributing information
about events in
Chiapas.

We learned that the
paramilitary group MIRA
has disappeared because,
according to the companeros,
civil society
found out about it and it
was denounced. It has been
replaced with a
new paramilitary group, the
Opdic, which operates in the
canyons of the
Lacandon Jungle. The Opdic
is said to be responsible
for several of the
attacks last July-August.
We also learned that it is
growing and
spreading throughout the
canyons
east of Ocosingo. According
to the
companeros and the Mexico
City
newspaper La Jornada, the
Opdic is organized
and financed by the
Municipal president of
Ocosingo, Omar
Burguete and by Pedro
Chulin, a
delegate to the state
Congress from a
district in Ocosingo county
(the
largest in terms of square
miles in Mexico).

Autonomy

Although the Mexican
Congress and Supreme
Court have refused to
implement the San Andres
Accords into law,
the Zapatista communities in
Chiapas have constructed
autonomy on their
own. They have developed a
structure of self governance
based on their
cultural values and on the
principles of their
resistance against neo-
liberalism and a "bad
government." They elect
their own
authorities who in turn
implement
programs for autonomous
education and
health. They construct
schools,
libraries, health clinics
and begin to
develop an autonomous
economy.
They face many obstacles:
lack of money,
inability of many to read
and
write, lack of
transportation, lack of
medicine, etc. They know it
will
take a long time to
accomplish all they hope
for, but they are
diligently working on it.

Polhó Refugee Camp

There are still many
refugees from the
"low-intensity" warfare.
8,000
are in the autonomous
refugee camp of Polho,
possibly
the world's only entirely
self-managed
refugee camp. They are
in resistance. One of the
leaders told us
that they will not sell out
by returning to their
villages of origin
while there are still
paramilitaries there. They
were critical of
those who did return.

As I emerged from the van at
Polho, trucks
full of soldiers were no
more than 15 feet away on
the road, glaring
at me and at those guarding
the entrance to the refugee
camp. The
patrols were frequent. The
military camp is adjacent to
Polho. It is
active and menacing.

Lack of food is a problem
for everyone in
the community of Polho. The
International Red Cross has
reduced the
amount of food aid to 25% of
the minimum daily
requirement. To that
amount is added the food
from
those fields which it is
safe for some of
the refugees to work plus
the
money contributed by
national and
international civil society.
There is
hunger there. It seems to me
that the
refugees are the
responsibility
of all of us.

We were shocked to hear that
the Mexican Red
Cross, which is supposed
to be providing health care
to the county,
developed a little housing
project which was for PRI
families (read
paramilitaries) in other
communities and they are
using it to divide
communities. The
paramilitaries have been
given 1,000 tons of
building materials
(gravel, cement, wood, tin
roofs).

Montes Azules - Mesoamerican
Biological
Corridor-Mexico.

The threat of eviction looms
heavy over the
indigenous communities
settled inside the Montes
Azules Biosphere
Reserve. Towards the end of
our delegation, Global
Exchange took a group
of NGO workers and press
people for a flight over the
area and a
visit to several
communities.
Their report confirmed all
we have
previously said about the
phony
"green" reasons being but an
excuse to evict
troublesome indigenous
communities in the way of
corporate
exploitation of the
rainforest.
They echoed our criticisms
of Conservation
International's (CI's)
position on this matter. We
applaud their
work. The more voices that
are added to the critique of
what is really
happening in the Montes
Azules the better.

In one of our informational
briefings we
were told that one of the
things CI is doing in the
Montes Azules is
catching butterflies to send
to a tourist park in Cancun.
They also send
fungi and orchids to the
U.S.

Both before and after the
delegation,
several of us met with
friends in
Tuxtla Gutierrez, where we
discussed the
Mesoamerican Biological
Corridor-Mexico (MBC-M). In
the opinion of
these folks there is no
doubt that it is being used
for
counterinsurgency purposes.
The
reserves of El Triunfo and
the Chimilapas
are home to the EPR and both
EZLN and EPR respectively.
Civilian
communities supportive of
these
groups live inside the
reserves. The Montes
Azules is only the first
biosphere reserve to be
threatened with
evictions.

Jerusalen/Rancho Esmeralda.

While several of us were en
route to
Chiapas, EZLN bases of
support
surrounded Rancho Esmeralda,
the now
notorious "ecotourism" ranch
owned
by a couple of U.S.
citizens. Zapatistas
took control of the property
several weeks after it was
abandoned by the
owners, who remain in
Chiapas and talk to the
press, U.S.
government representatives,
and to
representatives of the
Chiapas government
regularly. We did not detect
much sympathy for them among
Chiapanecos.
They are asking the Chiapas
government to indemnify them
in the amount
of $5,000,000.00 pesos
($500,000.00 U.S. dollars).
The governor has
refused.

This is a difficult subject
to discuss
because we do not have the
benefit of the EZLN's word
on this. They are
completely silent on this
subject. However, some
information was
published in La Jornada and
the
local Chiapas papers while
we were there.
The essence of the published
information is that a
top-level Israeli
military official was the
leader of the "eco-tourist"
group that
caused the problem last
December. The group is known
to have ties to
the Guatemalan military
and it is suspected that
they brought arms
with them as well as
satellite telecommunications
equipment. They
must have been seen as a
threat to civilian Zapatista
bases of
support in Jerusalen, so the
road
through Jerusalen was closed
to further
Rancho Esmeralda
"eco-tourists."

The remainder of our
experience was a mix of
serious interviews and
celebrations in autonomous
communities. We
are producing a video on
that part of our trip for
presentation at La
Pena Cultural Center, 3105
Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley,
on April 9 at
7:30 PM.
______________________________________________________

* The Chiapas Support
Committee's (CSC) 4th
Annual Delegation for
International Women's Week
began on March 2
when all eleven delegates
gathered in San Cristobal de
las Casas
Chiapas, Mexico. We were 7
from
the Greater Bay Area (6 from
Oakland), 1
from Davis, California and 3
from Germany.

During the 9-day delegation
we received
excellent informational
briefings from Enlace Civil,
the Coordinator
of Civil Society in
Resistance and the awesome
research center,
CIEPAC. We traveled to four
communities in the canyons
east of Ocosingo
(where the U.S. State
Department advises us not to
go), spending
four days and three nights
there. We had formal
meetings with
autonomous authorities in
two
communities and chatted
informally in
others. In addition, we
visited
the archaeological ruins of
Tonina,
celebrated International
Women's
Day (a day late) at a fiesta
given for us by
the women's collective
store in the community of
San Jose and ended
the delegation with a
visit to the Polh' refugee
camp on
March 10. A very full
itinerary and an amazing
experience. Below
we summarize what we learned
about the general situation.

For more information about
Chiapas, the La
Pena program or about future
delegations to Chiapas,
please contact us.
___________________________________

CNC Activity(REPORT
from
CHIAPAS
-
PART
3)
The
CNC
is
a
national
peasant
organization
affiliated
with
the
Partido
Revolucionario
Institutional
(PRI),
the
ruling
party
in
Mexico
and
Chiapas
until
the
elections
of
2000.
The
PRI
still
controls
the
enormous county of
Ocosingo. It soon became
apparent that the CNC
members in La
Providencia were
interested in
more than just having
some
land. Some of them, Los
Lecheros, were one
of the groups which
pretended to leave the
Zapatistas and faked
turning in their weapons
to
former Governor Roberto
Albores
Guillén. Around
the same time
(1999) this group began
to provoke the
Zapatistas by making
false
reports to the police
and causing the
wrongful detention of
one of the
Zapatistas. Moreover,
they entered Zapatista
houses.....See
story

Mexican
Human
Rights
Lawyer
Is
KilledA
winner of Amnesty
International's
Enduring
Spirit Award, had been
menaced by death
threats for years,
often in
notes devised from
newspaper clippings
that appeared under
her
door. In 1999, she was
kidnapped and beaten.
Two months later, she
was tied, blindfolded
and
tortured in her home
for nine hours. No
arrests were made in
the
attacks.........See
story

Report
on
Chiapas - Parts
1
&
2Chiapas
state
elections
& Francisco
Gómez".....it was
clear that
the PRI
remained the
majority party.
[Later results
showed that the PRI
was
indeed the #1
favorite of the
people who
bothered to vote,
with the PRD
a distant second and
the PAN (Fox's
party)
third.] The PRI will
have a
majority of deputies
in the state
Congress
and maintains
control of a
majority of the
municipal
governments. A big
surprise was that a
previously unheard
of party, the PAS,
won
control of San
Cristóbal
municipal
government. It is
rumored that the PAS
was
founded by a rich
conservative
(redundant?),
but who knows!

Pérez
López
and
Morales
Ramírez
shared
the
analysis
that
there
was
one
crystal
clear
message
to
be
learned
from
this
year's
election:
if
you want to
beat
the PRI, you must
do so
in alliance with
other parties..."See
story

"We Will Die of
Hunger Without Red
Cross
Committee Aid."
Say
Chenalhó
Displaced Elio
Henríquez,
correspondent San
Cristóbal
de Las Casas,
Chiapas.
Indigenous from
the municipality
of
Chenalhó,
displaced from
their communities,
asked the
International
Committee of the
Red Cross
(CICR) to
reconsider its
decision to reduce
their humanitarian
aid
deliveries
because, if they
do not, "we are
going to die of
hunger...."See
story

The
EZLN.
On January 1,
1994, the
Zapatista Army of
National
Liberation (EZLN)
declared war
against the
Mexican government
by
seizing the four
largest
municipal
governments in the
state of Chiapas,
Mexico. The EZLN,
or
Zapatistas as they
are often called,
is
composed largely
of indigenous
Mayan campesinos.
Their demands
include land,
housing, food,
schools,
health care,
roads,
electricity, safe
drinking
water, and
democratic
elections.

After thirteen
days of fighting,
a fragile
truce was called
by the
government. Peace
talks resulted in
an initial
agreement on
Indigenous
Rights and Culture
in February, 1996.
(This
agreement is
referred to as
the "San Andres
Accords.")
Additional talks
were called off in
September of that
year when the
government
failed to
implement the
agreement it
signed. In
November, 1996 all
parties to the
peace talks
agreed to language
for implementing
the
initial accords
into law. The
president of
Mexico refused to
sign the
language to which
his own
negotiators
agreed. No talks
have been held
since.

Meanwhile,
the
government
has
implemented
a
strategy
of
"low-intensity
warfare"
against
civilian
communities
supportive
of
the
Zapatista
demands.
This
includes
sending
70,000
military
troops
to
Chiapas
(a state
with only 3.2
million people),
allowing
paramilitary
groups to
terrorize with
impunity, and the
military
occupation of
civilian
communities.

This
strategy
culminated
in
the
brutal
Christmas
Eve
massacre
of
45
women,
children
and
men,
as
they
prayed
in
the
chapel of a
refugee camp in a
village of Acteal,
Chiapas.
Military and
paramilitary
violence has
driven 19,500
indigenous people
into makeshift
refugee
camps where they
lack food,
shelter, medicine
and safe drinking
water.
The hunger in
these camps is now
combined with a
critical food
shortage
caused by this
year's severe
drought. We also
work directly with
indigenous
communities.

A New
President. On
Dec.
1,
2001,
Vicente
Fox became the
President of
Mexico. His
election
represented a
change in
political party
for
the first time
in more than
70 years. He is
a member of the
conservative
National Action
Party
(PAN). Fox
immediately
indicated that
he
wanted to resume
peace talks
with the EZLN
and sent the
Cocopa
Initiative
to Congress. The
Zapatistas set
three conditions
for returning
to the talks and
announced the
March to Mexico
City to address
the Mexican
Congress
regarding the
passage of the
Cocopa
Initiative. The
three conditions
were: 1)
Implementation
of the Cocopa
Initiative into
law; 2) Release
of all Zapatista
political
prisoners; and
3)
withdrawal of
the Army
from seven of
the many
military camps
in the
zone of
conflict. None
have been fully
complied with.

The
March to
Mexico
City.
The March
began in
Chiapas on
Feb. 24, 2001.
It passed
through 9 nine
states of
Mexico,
participated
in the
National
Indiginous
Congress and
arrived in the
Zocalo of
Mexico City on
March
10, 2001.
There were
between
200,000 and
250,000 people
awaiting
the 24 comandantes
(commanders)
in
the
Zocalo.

The
Mexican
Congress.A
delegation
of 4 civilian
commanders
addressed the
Mexican
Congress on
March 28,
2001,
advocating for
the passage of
the Cocopa
Initiative.
Their
historic
presence was
in spite of
intense
opposition
from PAN
legislators, a
rather ominous
sign.

In
April
2001,
the Congress
passed a
watered-down
version of
the Cocopa
Initiative,
leading one
Mexican
newspaper to
label it
"Cocopa
Light." The
legislation
failed to
recognize
indigenous
lands
and
territories or
recognize
their right to
autonomy. The
Zapatistas
rejected it,
withdrew their
government
liaison
and broke off
all formal
contact with
the Fox
government.
The majority
of
the states
approved
the
constitutional
change, in
spite of
fierce
opposition.
More than 300
appeals were
filed with the
Mexican
Supreme
Court which
has yet to
rule. A case
was also filed
before the
International
Labor
Organization,
a United
Nations
organization.

The
Current
Situation.After
the
states
approved
the
constitutional
changes,
Fox
signed
then
into law.
Additional
troops were
sent to
Chiapas,
paramilitary
groups
resurfaced
and
low-intensity
warfare
resumed
against
Zapatista
civialian
communities.
The current
estimate is
that
there are
80,000
soldiers in
Chiapas.

Analysis.Although
conservatives
claim
"constitutional
concerns,"
it
is
widely
accepted
that
the
reason
the
Cocopa
initiative
was
not
approved
has
more
to
do
with
economic
interests.
Transnational
corporations
and the
governments
which they
influence are
anxious
to exploit the
abundant
natural
resourcesof
Chiapas
like
oil,
biodiversity,
water
and
fertile
land.
The
Plan
Puebla-Panama
(PPP)
is
just
beginning
to
develop
the
basic
infrastructure
(roads,
ports,
dams,
railroads,
privatization
of
communal
land,
etc.)
needed
for
monocrop
agriculture,
biotech
research,
"eco-tourism,"
and
the
maquiladora
industry.
This
necessitates
violent
clashes
between
the
governments
and many
indigenous
communities
which have
vowed to
resist. (For
further
introductory
information on
Chiapas, see
Earth
Island
Journal's report on
Chiapas.
Another
independent
report is
available here.)

How
You Can Help.The
indigenous
people of
Chiapas need
support form
the
international
community in
various ways:
1)
International
human right
observers in
Chiapas peace
camps; 2)
political
support such
as letters to
the
Mexican
Consulates,
U.S.
politicians,
demonstrations,
etc;
and/or,
3)
Financial
support.
For
more
information,
call
the
Chiapas
Support
Committee
at:
(510)
654-9587.